Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Our session at the regional conference focused on skills for work, drawing together our earlier work on education and manufacturing.

We welcomed Clive Hickman, chair of the division of manufacturing of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers to talk about skills development.

Clive is also chief executive of the Coventry Manufacturing Technology Centre.

Clive identified three problems: industry cannot get engineers; millions of
young adults are unemployed; graduates are coming out of university with
degrees that do not equip them for jobs.

His solution is radical. He suggests policy should shift away from 50% of
young people doing degrees.

Instead he suggests:

30% to do degrees;

40% to do four year apprenticeships, generally between the ages of 16 and

20; 30% to take on less skilled jobs.

In conversation with me prior to the session, Clive pointed out the extent to
which UK manufacturing is an increasing success story. Within a few
years the UK will be producing more motor vehicles than ever in its history -
about 2 million a year, he reckons. The coalition government has backed
industry and continues to put investment into our region via the Regional Growt
h Fund and LEPs.

Clive's proposal is radical but he was keen to stress that a great deal more can
be done with apprenticeships. We discussed with him about graduate
expectations and the possibility of formalising - as graduate apprenticeships -
more of the in-work training that most graduates have to do. He also set out
how his own organisation is proposing a new model of apprenticeship aimed at
supporting the needs of small business.

The discussion brought together two threads of our work from the last few
years, manufacturing and education. There seemed general consensus to
keep up our investigations. In particular the ideas provoked by Clive's
comments should help us as the party's working group on post-16 education
(which Lee Dargue is on) comes up with findings.

If you are a member of the Lib Dems in the West Mids region and would like to be involved with our work, please get in touchCllr Jon Hunt , regional policy chair

Friday, September 14, 2012

Amendment to
motion F6 Getting the Most out of Schools, submitted by West Midlands Region to Liberal Democrat autumn conference 2012:

Following the words

"To improve vocational education, conference calls
for:"

Delete lines 27-28 and 40, currently reading:

"i) Clear pathways to be developed for those
undertaking vocational courses so that they

remain a legitimate and valued alternative to academic
courses."

"vi) A vocational equivalent to the EBacc."

Insert new:

i) reaffirmation of the party's long-standing commitment
to the integration of academic and vocational education;

vi) development of new GCSEs to provide challenge, choice
and opportunity for all students through vocational and academic options.

Add the following lines:

Conference further instructs Federal Policy committee to develop
proposals for Liberal Democrat policies for 14-19 education that provide
opportunities for all young people, in line with the above principles and
including the following:

1) commissioning of 14-19 education to lie with local
education authorities, who will be charged with ensuring students have adequate
choice and opportunity;

2) establishment of an OpenSchool
to provide virtual resources and learning for new and expanded student options.

this amendment reflects the findings of a major project
undertaken by West Midlands region's policy committee and its regional
conference. It was to have been a separate motion next year but clearly F6
deals with the same area.

Our proposals call for the creation of distinctive
Liberal Democrat policy, based on the concepts of choice and opportunity for
young people, as opposed to "tweaking" coalition policy, as we
believe F6 does.

It

- reaffirms party commitment to integration of academic
and vocational education;

- prevents any impression that the Ebacc is party policy
(it emanates from the Tory half of the coalition);

- sets out some new principles around choice which should
be explored to create an imaginative new policy based on Liberal Democrat
principles and building on the education system created by the coalition
government;

- sets out some extra proposals to achieve this:

* an OpenSchool;

* commissioning role for local authorities;

- provides and clarifies potential role for local
authorities within education;

- calls for more work by FPC to develop these policies
into an attractive and workable package for 2015.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Liberal Democrats think all young people deserve to leave school having achieved and learned to the best of their ability.

Our regional project Beyond the Ebacc has been thinking how this might be achieved in 2015 - following the next general election.

The coalition has introduced the English Baccalaureate which rewards young people for studying English, Maths, Sciences, Foreign Languages and history or geography. Last year just 16 per cent of young people achieved this - and the government now predicts that within two years 47 per cent of 16-year-olds will be taking these subjects. Fewer than half.

One of the key issues we want to reach a conclusion on is the extent to which the English Baccalaureate should become a portfolio (ie a single) qualification.

We recognise the present Ebacc seeks to achieve two things:
1/ it ensures "academic" subjects, especially languages, are on the curriculum of most if not all schools; this is what we call entitlement - ensuring all students have access to these subjects.
2/ it seeks to set the benchmark students should achieve if they are to go on to do academic subjects at university - that's the portfolio bit - a recognisable qualification.

Previous Lib Dem policy sought something similar via a diploma - but unlike the Ebacc it did not specify the subjects to be included to the same extent.

About this site

These pages are originated by the regional policy committee of West Midlands Liberal Democrats. We'd like to hear your views on our ideas, whether you are a party member or not. However comments will be moderated for irrelevance, abuse etc. To obtain pdf copies of policy papers please email